The Court of Appeal for Ontario heard the appeal filed in respect of s. 65 of the Canada Pension Plan on September 30, 2008.

We are waiting for the Court of Appeal to release its decision. As soon as the Court releases its decision we will be contacting those class members still involved in the proceeding.

THE DEADLINE FOR FILING APPLICATIONS IN THIS PROCEEDING WAS SEPTEMBER 30, 2008 AND IS NOW COMPLETE.

If a class member failed to take steps to claim their Survivors Pension by September 30, 2008, the Class Member will not be able to assert a claim for their Survivor's Pension under this proceeding except with leave of the court. Without leave the class member will be entitled to their pension payments in accordance with the regular Canada Pension Plan provisions, namely 11 months of arrears from the date of filing of the application.

If you believe that you missed the filing deadline for valid reasons and wish to seek leave to have the date for filing a survivors pension claim extended to take advantage of this proceeding please contact us as soon as you are able.

The Proceeding

Hislop v. Canada is a national class proceeding in which the class members, represented by REO, sought payment of Canada Pension Plan survivor's pensions. The representative plaintiffs include George Hislop, a well-known gay rights advocate from Toronto, and four other representative plaintiffs from across Canada. Hislop was one of the first class actions in Canada to proceed to trial and the first class action involving issues of equality under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The class members include over 700 gay men and lesbians whose same sex partners died in the period between April 17, 1985 and January 1, 1998 and whose deceased partners contributed to the Canada Pension Plan. Despite their partners' contributions, the class members were denied their survivor's pensions by the federal government. Although the federal government brought in new legislation in 2000 to legally recognize same sex couples, the legislation excluded these class members from receiving a Canada Pension Plan survivor's pension. Under the federal legislation, only those gay men and lesbians whose partners died on or after January 1, 1998 were entitled to apply for and receive a Canada Pension Plan survivor pension.

The class members were successful at the trial. The federal government appealed the trial decision and were largely unsuccessful in their appeal to the Court of Appeal for Ontario. The decision of the Court of Appeal for Ontario was appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. The hearing took place on May 16, 2006 and the Court released its decision on March 7, 2007. Notwithstanding the appeal to the Supreme Court, the federal government agreed to start paying pensions in July 2005 to Class Members who had applied for their Survivor's Pensions. Although George Hislop passed away in October 2005, the case was continued by the remaining representative plaintiffs, Eric Brogaard and Gail Meredith of British Columbia, Brent Daum of Saskatchewan and Albert McNutt of Nova Scotia.

For further information, please refer to the links above, or contact Sean Grayson of REO at cpp@reo.ca , 416-362-1989 or 1-866-877-0109.